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Sounds like fun! Wish I could be there!

Looking forward to trying one of the rotary Thor models out someday.

And the 45SLZ is a really terrific F that doesn't seem to get as much chatter as other models do. Both examples that I tried had fine intonation and even response throughout the entire scale of the horn.

Nice opportunity, envious...what were the ergonomics like on the Kodiak and the 45slz? Comfortable? Any difference from say the B&S PT series?

Cool! Anything you tried, but didn't like?

I've owned a Kodiak for a few years now and continue to be extremely pleased with it. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pick this one out of 6 others at the time here in Japan. Honestly though, it was a close race between them all. Very consistent.

As Bloke mentioned, it offers outstanding intonation. It plays rock solid in all registers with great center. Extremely easy to play which has been a nice characteristic of recent MW offerings.
I've used it with the orchestra on everything from Die Meistersinger to Bydlo and with my orchestras BQ and my trio.
MW and Alan Baer did a wonderful job with this tuba IMHO.

As a side note, I will say that I recently played for the first time the MW 4460. I found this horn to be very nice as well. Great sound and easy intonation! It had a more distinct(sweeter maybe?) sound perhaps than the Kodiak when sitting with it. However, when listening to a friend out front they both sounded great. The Kodiak tended to reach the ear a tad quicker perhaps.
I came away thinking either or really... even thouh they played quite different.

With all the great new horns on the market we really have no excuses...well except maybe for the fact that there aren't enough openings!

YMMV

Cheers

Pete